Public opinion as personal cultivation: A normative notion and a source ofsocial control in traditional China

This paper attempts to define a Chinese perspective on public opinion. To t his end, the paper draws from writings on Confucian philosophy, which reson ates with the enduring value system of China, and presents the manifestatio ns of the perspective of public opinion as personal cultivation in the soci opolitical history of China. In particular, the role of ii, which is the ro ute to personal cultivation in the public sphere, face, and shame in the Ch inese public opinion process is explicated. The main thesis of the paper is that public opinion in China has been viewed as integrally related to pers onal cultivation. The paper contends that the normative notion of public op inion as personal cultivation has served as a source of social control, whi ch occurred in three levels, including that of the people, the rulers, and the maintenance of the sociopolitical system.